Where Does Your Car Come From

If you’re thinking of buying a new or used car, its heritage and how far it has travelled to the dealership may not be the first things you consider. However, there are many drivers who take an interest in the history of their car and where in the world it was manufactured.

Here, we look at the origins of your Kia, Ford, Nissan, Mazda or ŠKODA. Keep reading to find out more.

Kia was founded in 1944 as a manufacturer of bicycle parts. From humble beginnings on the outskirts of Seoul, Kia has grown into a major international manufacturer and can take credit for the production and export of Korea’s first cars. The company now boasts an ever-expanding range of models sold through a network of dealers in 172 countries.

Even though Kia may be a South Korean company, there is a strong chance that your new Kia was built in Europe. Kia opened its first plant in Europe in April 2007. The €1 billion plant is located in Zilina, Slovakia, about 200 kilometres north-east of Bratislava. The initial production concentrated on the popular Kia Cee\'d model, designed exclusively for the European market.

The plant now makes up to 300,000 cars per year and it is one of the few auto factories in the world that is capable of building up to eight different models on the same line.

The Ford Motor Company was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. Its headquarters are in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit and over more than 100 years it has grown into one of the world’s most recognisable motor brands.

Your Ford may have been built in Britain but only if it is more than 12 years old. There has been no Ford car production in this country since 2002 although the development of new models is split between Dunton in Essex and Cologne.

Ford assembles the Mondeo range in Genk (Belgium), the Fiesta in Valencia (Spain) and Cologne (Germany), the Ka in Valencia (Spain) and the Focus in Valencia (Spain), Saarlouis (Germany) and Vsevolozhsk (Russia).

The name \'Nissan\' originated during the 1930s as an abbreviation used on the Tokyo stock market for the holding company at the time, Nihon Sangyo.

If you buy a new Nissan there is a strong chance that it was built here in the UK. In 2013, more than 286,000 of the cars built in Sunderland were Nissan Qashqais and total Qashqai production in the UK now stands at 1,752,232 since 2006.

The factory in the North East broke the 50,000 units-per-month barrier in October 2013 with eight different model variants built across the calendar year.

Sunderland is also the manufacturing centre for Nissan’s electric vehicle, the Leaf. In addition, the Infiniti car will be manufactured in the UK from 2015.

The vast majority of all new Mazda models are built in one of the company’s four main Japanese plants. The Hiroshima Plant has been in operation since March 1931 while the Miyoshi Plant celebrated its 40th birthday this year.

The ŠKODA Works were established as an arms manufacturing plant in 1859. ŠKODA Auto (and its predecessors) is one of the five oldest companies producing cars and the origins of what became ŠKODA Auto go back to the early 1890s when, like Kia, the company started manufacturing bicycles.

To produce the ŠKODA Fabia, Octavia, Roomster, Yeti and Superb models, the company built new manufacturing facilities in their native Czech Republic and equipped them with the most advanced technology available.

New ŠKODA Fabias and Octavias roll off the production line in Mladá Boleslav. The Roomster and the brand\'s largest model, the Superb, are manufactured at the newly reconstructed and expanded factory branch in Kvasiny. ŠKODA also assemble some of their cars at other international manufacturing and assembly plants.